not happy with Win7 64 Home premium

[sightseer]

this is a mundane topic I guess but Id like to warn people who currently use XP or Vista that the Home Premium version of Win7 64 bit really isnt any better than Vista 64. In some ways it seems worse.

My old machine had Vista 64. I was able to load the video drivers that came with my 9800GT. They were apparently 32 bit but they worked. Vista 64 had no problem. Win7 64 wouldnt even allow me to load them. The install program said "These are for 32 bit only"

Last night I discovered that a favorite game of mine, test Drive Unlimited (the first one) wont even work on Win 7 64. It worked fine on Vista 64. I did a small amount of research and found a suggested solution to the problem is to run in 'XP mode' (Compatibility mode wont work - I tried both XP and Vista compatability along with other suggestions - nada). 'XP Mode' isnt available to Win 7 home premium users.

Win7 64 isnt any more reliable than Vista 64 as far as I can tell. It doesnt run flight sim any better for me. and it wont run Test Drive Unlimited at all. overall, Im not happy with it.

I have the feeling that everyone who thinks "its great" has Ultimate or Professional and not 'Home premium'.

[normandean]

I use Win 7 64 bit Home Premium, and its never given me any problem. I had Vista before that and Win 7 is definately more stable.

Norman

[Tony Wroblewski]

I found Win 7 64-bit more stable, especially with regards to running FSX. I found that I needed to run many games and apps in Windows XP compatibility mode to solve weird issues, so it might be worth trying and see if it helps.

Windows Vista was terrible for me.

[Dave_YVR]

Win7 64 Home Premium has been pretty incredible so far and rock solid stable. As for drivers, why use older 32bit Vista drivers in a 64bit OS when you can use any of the newer ones meant for 64bit?

[Alex Goff]

For nVidia drives if they don't offer a Win 7 x64 option then the Vista x64 option will almost always work. Make sure you're downloading from their website, but I'm certain there's a driver that will work. One of my secondary rigs has two 9800GT's in SLI using Win 7 x64 Home Premium and I believe it uses the 182.50 drivers just fine

[teecee]

It took me about a month to get settled with win7, and I cursed the programme daily, but once you get it settled down I think you will change your mind. Teecee.

[Wolf2grey]

I have Win 7 64 Home and I am happy with it. nVidia has ALL drivers for every OS out there. If you search the nVidia driver support page, there is one for every OS out there. http://www.nvidia.co...aspx?lang=en-us

I agree with Tony, FSX is very stable now. From day one when I installed it, I have had hardly no problems with it now.

I run tech support for a machine company and Win 7 Home has worked great for all my customers. You do have to download all new drivers and such for different software to run and we have had to upgrade the firmware on the machines to talk to it, but once that is done it is rock solid.......

I cannot speak to the Test Drive Unlimited. It would seem the game is not compatible at the moment. I did find this link to the problem and it will work in XP Mode and a fix is coming.....http://answers.micro...54-00d73256f2c4

[Matthew Kane]

Win7 Home Premium is the way to go with FSX, I think what you are experiencing there Dave is just a transitional phase. You will iron out all those issues and get things going. When you get all your drivers installed and updates done (and a lot of hair pulling), load up your favorite plane, favorite scenery and go for a great flight.

Give it some time and you will find it is a more stable platform for FSX.

Cheers

[Patrick Cox]

I have Win7 64 on my computer and it runs fine for me. I have a couple of programmes that won't load but I fixed that by right clicking on the "Setup" icon and going to 'Properties/Compatability' and ticking the box beside "Run as Vista Service Pack 3". All worked perfectly for me then.

[Patrick Scharnowski]

I use Windows 7 x64 Home Premium for three years now (that includes the pre-release RC version) and I was never happier using Windows. I don't have any problems with it and it blew Windows XP right out of the water. There was one game that I couldn't get to work (King Kong), but the reason that it wouldn't work was the abominable Starforce copy protection drivers that the company didn't deem necessary to update. But that's not Window's fault.

By the way, the XP Mode that you talk about and that is part of the Professional edition but omitted from the Home Premium version is useless for games, because it doesn't access the 3D acceleration functions of the graphics card.

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Have been using W7 x64 since the beta version, and have now on my latest rig W7pro x64 installed and it's working like a charm

so far W7 is the most stable platform Windows ever released imho.

[Flyboy]

I'm currently using Win7HP 64Bit. As far as GFX drivers are concerned, I have had to use the "Original" GeForce drivers that came on the setup disk for my GF9600GT, probably because it is factory O/C'd. I have tried the "updates" from Nvidia, but they all have given me trouble. No problems with the original drivers using them with FSX. And I had the same problem when I had Win7Pro 32Bit installed. Some "Older" games will not install for me but that doesn't worry me. "Horses for courses".

@"sightseer" ... Dave, have you considered "duel booting"? That way you can have the best of both worlds. Win7_64Bit is by far the best OS for FSX so far (HomePrem only limits the total amount of RAM you can "see" but still gives you plenty for FSX). I have WinXP, Vista and Linux all on the same HDD on my lappy. My "FSX Box" duel boots Win7HP64 with Linux (Ubuntu) 64. Each OS has it's advantages. None are "perfect". There are plenty of tutorials "out there" on how to "duel boot".

Cheers ... Pete.

[Arismac]

Win 7 64 is by far the best OpSys I have used. Very happy with it.

Cheers, Mac

[Indy511]

Win 7 64 is by far the best OpSys I have used. Very happy with it.

Cheers, Mac

Ditto

[sightseer]

Guys - Thanks for the replies. Ive got the drivers I needed. that wasnt a big deal. I think not being able to play a favorite game (I only have two -- Flightsim and Test drive) on this new machine threw me over the edge. It plays Test Drive 2 though so thats good enough (but TDU1 was very fun)

Vista was the first OS that I had problems with. It kept 'losing its mind'. It could not keep track of how I wanted to view my files and I swear it deleted files all on its on sometimes. I know you couldnt just move things from one directory to another. WinXP always worked. I thought Win7 was a fixed version of Vista...kinda like Flight was hopefully a fixed version of FSX...hmmm...but W7-64 also cant keep things straight and I always need to refresh to actually see the files that should be in a given directory. Im sure Ill get used to it sooner or later but I spent a lot of money and it took me over a year of buying parts and now I have a system that although it is faster and more powerful it also suffers more noticeable microstutters. Changing my monitor frequency to 60Hz (from 75) actually seemd to help that. Only loading the graphics driver and nothing else (as suggested by Wolter - thanks Wolter) helped a great deal. but it still seems more 'stuttery' than my previous very very inexpensive system. I do have more scenery and I can fly into YBBN without it being a slideshow...Im having ...Im not sure.

Its not the rocket machine I had hoped. Im going to to save my money again and buy a new graphics card and Im rethinking this Z68 SSDcache routine. Im not convinced its helping much.

-----------------------------------------------

Win7 Home Premium is the way to go with FSX, I think what you are experiencing there Dave is just a transitional phase. You will iron out all those issues and get things going. When you get all your drivers installed and updates done (and a lot of hair pulling), load up your favorite plane, favorite scenery and go for a great flight.

Give it some time and you will find it is a more stable platform for FSX.

Cheers

ytz - I think you're right. It just needs time.

I use Windows 7 x64 Home Premium for three years now (that includes the pre-release RC version) and I was never happier using Windows. I don't have any problems with it and it blew Windows XP right out of the water. There was one game that I couldn't get to work (King Kong), but the reason that it wouldn't work was the abominable Starforce copy protection drivers that the company didn't deem necessary to update. But that's not Window's fault.

By the way, the XP Mode that you talk about and that is part of the Professional edition but omitted from the Home Premium version is useless for games, because it doesn't access the 3D acceleration functions of the graphics card.

Jigsaw - thanks for telling me that. I regretted not trying to buy the more expensive ultimate or Pro versions but if it wouldnt work anyway then I didnt lose anything by buying Home premium. My TDU1 problem actually seems to be a '16bit' related issue. ie; backwards compatibility.

I'm currently using Win7HP 64Bit. As far as GFX drivers are concerned, I have had to use the "Original" GeForce drivers that came on the setup disk for my GF9600GT, probably because it is factory O/C'd. I have tried the "updates" from Nvidia, but they all have given me trouble. No problems with the original drivers using them with FSX. And I had the same problem when I had Win7Pro 32Bit installed. Some "Older" games will not install for me but that doesn't worry me. "Horses for courses".

@"sightseer" ... Dave, have you considered "duel booting"? That way you can have the best of both worlds. Win7_64Bit is by far the best OS for FSX so far (HomePrem only limits the total amount of RAM you can "see" but still gives you plenty for FSX). I have WinXP, Vista and Linux all on the same HDD on my lappy. My "FSX Box" duel boots Win7HP64 with Linux (Ubuntu) 64. Each OS has it's advantages. None are "perfect". There are plenty of tutorials "out there" on how to "duel boot".

Cheers ... Pete.

Pete - I didnt really know how to do that when I built this new system. I generally just build a new basic computer every five or 6 years as I can afford it. I may yet do a dual boot on this new machine. I need another copy of Vista though for what I want to do I should have bought the retail version. (if I had known)

[mjrhealth]

The other litle unknown issue, well not thought about much, is that 16bit programmes will not run on a 64 bit system. This issue came into light with autocad old versions, they have a 16bit installer, but you cant install using it, works fine on 32 bit machines.

[Flyboy]

Dave, if you are not happy with a duel boot situation, for those older programs and games (that do not need 3D GFX) best bet is to use a Virtual Machine and install your old version of Windoze or Linux or DOS etc on it. ( NOTE: the versions of Windoze that have an install key will still need to be activated ) You can install many virtual machines within a program like VirtualBox or VMWare - both have free download versions. I have two games that need 800x600 to run, and so I run them in a VM. Most modern CPUs support vitualization, and so the OS and programs installed in a Virtual Machine will run at nearly native speed. And best of all, the Virtual Machine program (VirtualBox or VMWare) is just another application - if you don't like it, just delete it.